John Munson/The Star-LedgerCrews work to clear the snow at Newark Liberty International Airport in this 2010 file photo.

NEWARK — As snow begins to fall in Newark, Continental Airlines has announced the cancellation of 485 flights scheduled for Wednesday, most of them in or out of its Newark hub, the airline said this evening.

In all, the impending snow storm led Continental to cancel more than 700 flights systemwide, including 244 today, said Andrew Ferraro, a Continental spokesman. The majority of the airline’s flights originate, terminate or connect at Continental’s northeastern hub at Newark Liberty International Airport, Ferraro said. Continental is Newark Liberty’s main carrier.

Mass cancellations during and after the late December blizzard left thousands of passengers stranded at Newark Liberty and other regional airports. Many fliers said they went to the airport not knowing whether their flight was canceled after being unable to learn its status by phone or online.

In advance of the latest storm, Ferraro said the airline began calling passengers by phone to inform them their flights had been canceled. Passengers who signed up for status alerts have also been notified by text message, Ferraro said.

“We proactively reached out to folks this time,” Ferraro said.

As it had in advance of the blizzard and a lighter storm last week, Continental, along with its newly merged corporate cousin, United Airlines, allowed fliers to rebook flights scheduled for Monday night and Tuesday without penalty.

Ferraro said United canceled 142 flights systemwide scheduled for Wednesday. American Airlines has canceled about 500 flights scheduled for Wednesday, said Tim Smith, an American spokesman. But Newark Liberty is not a an American hub, Smith said, and only about 20 of those cancellations involve Newark.

Smith said American is also allowing passengers to change their reservations without penalty during the storm.